Page 14 (1/2)

Chapter 1

One 1873 Winchester 30/30 rifle One Purple Heart war ot to s so loosely around my wrist, it falls to my elbohen I raise my arm Teeks after Grandpa’s death and this is all I have left of him

Oh, and a check for seventy-five thousand dollars One of the three equal amount checks that was split between my mother, my older sister and me I expected the rifle; he had always said I was the only one who appreciated his antiques, but I didn’t expect the e apartuess I never pictured hi ht he had any money

Stopping at a red light, I glance at the cashier’s check folded in my car’s cup holder Seventy-five thousand dollars? It doesn’t seem real I wonder if it will become real when I deposit it intotells it account balance on a coh that I’m richer than I’ve ever been I used to think the co the Medical Center Townhoest chunk of cash I’d ever see But this blows that out of the water This is more than ten townhomes

Maybe I should cash it into dollar bills, fill up a kiddie pool inroom and swim in it I can picture it now: Ms World’s Most Sensitive Ears fro on the front door and tellto get some rest before the new episode of Criminal Minds came on I’d offer her all the cash she could carry with two hands to leave me alone

As I pull into the Carter Properties parking lot, my cashier’s check tips to the side and flutters down to the floorboard I te the wheel to catch it, not caring that I’d crash my car in the process Shit The money isn’t even in my account yet and it’s already driven me insane I let the check sit weakly on the floor mat, as if it was just any old check and not my inheritance Not an ae someone’s life

I shut off the engine, grab n in front ofspot that says PARKING RESERVED FOR ROBIN CARTER, and head into work for the first time since Grandpa died I expect the place to look different, but it doesn’t It still smells of freshly-brewed coffee and some kind of flowery-vanilla scent in the wax ie’s obsession Grandpa spent the last six months in Hospice care, so it’s not as if the office would suddenly feel empty without hi spiritual presence is hovering overover me

It feels, well, like a normal work day

“The people with the house for sale on Mike Street called you three ti past me with an armload of paperwork and a coffee in her other hand She wears black leggings that show off her toned legs and a baggy rhinestone-decorated shirt I’hteen-year-old daughter doesn’t even dress this juvenile “So into their fence and how they’re not going to spend money to fix it”

“Of course they aren’t,” I say with a sigh as I pour a cup of coffee and lean against the counter in the break roo productive to sell their ugly, underwater house?”

My older sister eyes ly as I pour not one, not two, but three scoops of real cane sugar into ave you two o, you’d kno toxic that shit is for your body,” she says, eyeingwith such veheie nears the age of forty-five, the crow’s feet in her stare is so close to Moained thirty pounds I wouldn’t be able to tell the a sister who’s nineteen years older than you and an estranged father You essentially have two oodtheir crappy rew up even somewhat normal